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Mexico saves best for last, as Gastony scores five in win over Taiwan for 13th

COQUITLAM - Mexico won its first game of the tournament with a 9-4 victory over Taiwan for 13th place at the 2016 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Under-19 Men's Lacrosse World Championships presented by Novus.

Alec Gastony, one of the team's goalkeepers in the tournament, played out at attack and led the Green Machine with five goals. The Denver-based Adam State University product was a major factor in Mexico's growth and success throughout the week.

"Honestly, I'm just proud," Gastony said. "I'm so proud of this team. I just couldn't be happier that this group of guys pulled it together and decided to come [together] as one."

"What happened, when we first played Taiwan, one of our players, Adolfo Castro, he got hit in the neck and compressed the discs in his back. I had played middie before in high school, just here and there, and Adolfo is one of my closest friends on the team, so it was like, Coach Ozzie [Osvaldo Diaz ] turned around and was like 'Do you want to go in attack? We've got no other subs', and I was sitting out anyways because Omar [Bueno] was killing it, so I hopped on and all that was going through my mind was 'Let's go, team!'"

Other Mexico scoring came from Tlaloc Orozco-Cohen (2G, 3A) and Martin Vallebona (2G). Felix Omar Vargas Bueno made seven saves for the win.

"I've never met a group of guys that are like this, to be honest," Gastony added. "There's nothing but love and pride in each one of them. Every single game, no matter how bad the loss was, they were always ready for the next day and ready to continue trying as hard as they could."

For Taiwan, Yu-Hung Hu scored twice, with single goals coming from Hung-Wei Liang and Chi-En Li.

This was the first Under-19 men's lacrosse tournament at the FIL level for both squads. Both teams ended the event with a win, a major sign of growth for both teams. The teams also played on July 11 in an unforgettable game that went to seven overtimes before Taiwan won 8-7.